As of Friday, May 5, The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) put the outbreak total at 44– 41 in Hennepin County, 2 in Ramsey County and 1 in Crow Wing County, with 42 cases being unvaccinated and 86 percent of the cases being Somali Minnesotan.

Most of the exposures have occurred in either child care, health care or household settings. To date, more than 2,500 people have been exposed.

“Once measles begins to spread in unvaccinated populations, it can be very difficult to stop,” said Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious disease control for MDH. “We would not be surprised if we saw additional cases in other parts of the state where there are clusters of unvaccinated people before this is over.”

On Thursday, state health officials expanded their recommendations for stepped-up vaccination in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.

MDH has made the following recommendations to protect children and adults during outbreaks:

All children 12 months and older who have not received a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine should get the first dose as soon as possible.

Adults born in 1957 or later who have never received the MMR vaccine and have never had measles should get the vaccine as soon as possible.

For children who have had one dose of the MMR vaccine:

In counties where measles cases have been identified (currently Hennepin, Ramsey and Crow Wing), children 12 months and older who received their first dose of the MMR vaccine at least 28 days ago should get their second dose as soon as possible.

All Somali Minnesotan children statewide who received their first dose of the MMR vaccine at least 28 days ago should get their second dose now.

Health care providers may recommend an early second dose of the MMR vaccine during routine appointments for children statewide.

The MMR vaccine is given to children in two doses, typically at 12 months and between 4-6 years. The first dose offers good protection, and the second dose provides extra security. The accelerated vaccine schedule recommended is commonly used during outbreaks.

Since April 11, when the the outbreak began, outbreak response efforts have involved more than 70 staff at the state level, working full or part time, at a cost of $207,000. In addition, county public health staff and health care providers and facilities involved in the outbreak have accrued significant labor and related costs.

6 thoughts on “Measles outbreak grows by a dozen cases during past week”

What is worse the MMR or measles? Measles is a mild childhood disease provided the child has adequate vitamin A, Vitamin D and good nutrition.
Using the MedAlerts search engine, which facilitates an online search of the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database, as of March 3rd, 2016 there have been 7692 serious adverse events Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in connection with measles vaccine since 1990, with over half of those occurring in children three years old and under. Of these events 397 were deaths with over half of the deaths occurring in children under three years of age. Adverse events following MMR vaccination reported to VAERS include:

In 2014, CDC whistleblower William Thompson admitted to omitting statistically significant information in a 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested African American males receiving the MMR vaccine had a 340 percent increased risk for autism. In light of Thompson’s admission, there has been a growing list of health practitioners in France who are openly questioning the safety of vaccines and trustworthiness of scientific journals.

Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), stated in 2014:My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where I have worked since 1998. I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.(1)

The CDC reported a measles outbreak in a 100% documented vaccinated population.

Historical trends show that deaths caused by childhood illnesses had already
declined as much as 90% before vaccine programs were ever initiated.
Evidence indicates that an improved standard of living, better
nutrition, and increased sanitation, caused this drop in disease, not
vaccines

In 2013, a physician committee at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the current federally recommended childhood vaccine schedule for infants and children from birth to age 6 had not been adequately studied for safety,18 and that studies are needed to examine the:

Long-term cumulative effects of vaccines
Timing of vaccination in relation to the age and health of the child
Effects of the total load or number of vaccines given at one time
Effect of vaccine ingredients in relation to health outcomes
Biological mechanisms of vaccine-associated injury
More specifically, the IOM committee concluded there was insufficient scientific evidence to determine whether or not the numbers of doses and timing of federally recommended vaccines children receive in the first six years of life are associated with the development of chronic brain and immune system disorders that affect a child’s intellectual development, learning, attention, communication and behavior, such as ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities and autism.

The current whooping cough vaccine spreads whooping cough by allowing people to have milder symptoms and thus socialising, working and going into public places. People may not even know they have the whooping cough. It also has mutated much the same as antibiotics do when overused – .An acellular whooping cough vaccine actually enhances the colonization of Bordetella Thus, we conclude that aP vaccination interferes with the optimal clearance of B. parapertussis and enhances the performance of this pathogen. Our data raise the possibility that widespread aP vaccination can create hosts more susceptible to B. parapertussisinfection..http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or….

“Baboons vaccinated with aP were protected from severe pertussis-associated symptoms but not from colonization, did not clear the infection faster than naïve [unvaccinated] animals, and readily transmitted B. pertussis to unvaccinated contacts. By comparison, previously infected [naturally-immune] animals were not colonized upon secondary infection.”

A report was published by the Financial Post titled Vaccines Cannot Prevent Measles Outbreaks. Its author, Lawrence Solomon, reported on a paper written by Professor of Medicine and founder and leader of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, Professor Gregory A. Poland, titled The Re-emergence of Measles in Developed Countries, which was published two years ago.

“Thus, while an excellent vaccine, a dilemma remains. As previously mentioned, measles is extraordinarily transmissible. At the same time, measles vaccine has a failure rate measured in a variety of studies at 2 –10%, and modeling studies suggest that herd immunity to measles requires approximately 95% or better of the population to be immune.”

Therefore blaming unvaccinated people for not creating herd immunity is a myth – both vaccinated and unvaccinated spread the disease and will continue to do so. The best defence is a health immune system, high vitamin d levels, good diet, avoiding stress.

“Baboons vaccinated with aP were protected from severe pertussis-associated symptoms but not from colonization, did not clear the infection faster than naïve [unvaccinated] animals, and readily transmitted B. pertussis to unvaccinated contacts. By comparison, previously infected [naturally-immune] animals were not colonized upon secondary infection.”

A report was published by the Financial Post titled Vaccines Cannot Prevent Measles Outbreaks. Its author, Lawrence Solomon, reported on a paper written by Professor of Medicine and founder and leader of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, Professor Gregory A. Poland, titled The Re-emergence of Measles in Developed Countries, which was published two years ago.

“Thus, while an excellent vaccine, a dilemma remains. As previously mentioned, measles is extraordinarily transmissible. At the same time, measles vaccine has a failure rate measured in a variety of studies at 2 –10%, and modeling studies suggest that herd immunity to measles requires approximately 95% or better of the population to be immune.”

Therefore blaming unvaccinated people for not creating herd immunity is a myth – both vaccinated and unvaccinated spread the disease and will continue to do so. The best defence is a health immune system, high vitamin d levels, good diet, avoiding stress.